The VLW Blog

A trial judge’s comments about doctors leaving the profession because of rising med-mal premiums did not require reversal of a defense verdict in a premature infant’s med-mal suit.
Late yesterday, the 4th Circuit said that comments by Norfolk Senior U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar were not “plain error” that would win another trial for [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia adopts today a five-part test for determining whether an inadvertent disclosure of a document covered by the attorney-client privilege waives the privilege.
The issue in Walton v. Mid-Atlantic Spine Specialists PC arose after a letter from an orthopedic surgeon to his attorney was copied by a company the surgeon’s practice had [...]

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A med-mal plaintiff can tack on court costs to his $1.8 million jury award, a Richmond federal court says.
U.S. District Judge Robert Payne rejected a surgeon’s claim that paying his former patient $2,706.88 in costs would bump the award beyond Virginia’s statutory cap.
Plaintiff Wendell Waggener sued Dr. Steven J. Oltermann and his employer, Northern Neck [...]

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This paper has reported on some high-dollar med-mal cases involving Caesarean sections, but an unpublished 4th Circuit case out of Roanoke offers a new twist.
Nickeshia M. Lawrence sued Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital for medical malpractice in failing to perform a Caesarean section when she was giving birth to her son.
After a five-day trial, the jury [...]

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Roanoke Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein will allow a medical malpractice plaintiff to pursue his claim that a Carilion Clinic policy discouraging outside referrals led to medical complications.
Weckstein ruled today in a hearing in the case of Ronald Burchett, according to The Roanoke Times .
Burchett, represented by Robert Hovis of Annandale, claims Carilion’s reluctance to call [...]

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State health care organizations wanted a pilot project to look at something other than a hard-nosed “deny and defend” response to a medical error.
But the proposal from the Joint Commission on Health Care died this afternoon when the civil subcommittee of the House Courts of Justice Committee voted to carry House Bill 306 over to [...]

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There will be no effort to change the medical malpractice cap in this session of the General Assembly.

Representatives of healthcare organizations and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association met with the chairmen of the House and Senate Courts of Justices Committees earlier this week to advise them of the ceasefire.

Jack Harris, executive director of the VTLA, [...]

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You really do have to sweat the small stuff when you’re a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia.
We give you three examples from today’s 20-opinion drop.
Hutchins v. Talbert. Doctor loses a medical malpractice case, and the trial court enters final judgment on April 25 but suspends the order for 14 days, specifically noting that [...]

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The plaintiffs and defense both score a win with two medical malpractice appeals decided today by the Supreme Court of Virginia.
In Graham v. Cook , the court affirmed a defense verdict for an orthopedic surgeon and revisited the issue of when a treating physician’s testimony is considered “factual” versus diagnostic.  Testimony is subject to the [...]

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A Spotsylvania County Circuit Court jury awarded $7.5 million Friday to the family of a woman who died from breast cancer.
William E. Artz of Arlington, the attorney for the family, contended that a family practitioner and a nurse practitioner were negligent in failing to determine the reason for a lump in the woman’s breast after [...]

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